Media: "They will hang me" — Putin has become afraid for his life in the event of defeat in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has chosen further escalation of the war in Ukraine and is preparing to send several hundred thousand more Russians to the front, sources close to the Kremlin told The Economist.
According to one of them, Putin probably believes that ending the war without obtaining at least all of Donbas would put his life at risk. "They will hang me," he told his inner circle, the source claims.
At the same time, continuing the war in its current format also creates problems for Putin, since his army has for several years been unable to achieve a decisive breakthrough. "Scenarios based on inertia are not advantageous for the Kremlin," since they only consume economic resources and political capital, explained one representative of the Russian elite. Because of this, Putin intends to intensify the fighting, the publication's interlocutors noted.
In particular, according to them, he is going to send another 300,000–400,000 people to the front, for which he does not necessarily have to announce a new mobilization, since the decree on conducting it has been in effect since September 2022. It is assumed that recruitment will be assigned to regional authorities, which will use pressure to keep discontent at the local level. The sources added that the new system is already being tested in the Penza region, where men are detained on the streets and forcibly sent to war.
According to the publication, another direction of escalation could be the intensification of hybrid operations against Ukraine's allies. Western intelligence services fear that Russia will attack European plants producing weapons and military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, they believe that Putin does not want a direct military clash with NATO.
At the same time, Putin may step up repression against opponents of his policies inside Russia — not because they pose a threat to his power, but because he needs to demonstrate strength. According to one of the sources, the Russian president also perceived the visit of the director of the U.S. CIA to Moscow as a sign of weakness.
Meanwhile, gloomy moods prevail among the Russian elite, and the main problem lies not so much in the state of the economy or the lack of successes at the front as in the time the country has lost because of the war, says one insider. According to him, whatever its outcome turns out to be, nearly five years of fighting already look like a failure. Another representative of the elites notes that at the top there is a growing sense that "the tsar is naked." At the same time, neither economic difficulties nor political problems in themselves threaten Putin's power: he still has enough resources and repressive tools to continue the war.
Source: themoscowtimes.com
